Mary Stolz has done it again—this mature, beautifully written novel ["Some Merry-Go-Round Music"] is one of the season's few worthwhile books for girls. Again, the story's theme is determined by the personality of the main character, a heroine who exists everywhere but whose unheroic qualities have made her unrepresented in fiction.

Miranda Parrish is a young woman with plenty of potential but an unhappy life. Bickering parents, a dull job, and never enough money can happen to anyone, but Miranda's overwhelming desire is for peace at any price—and the price is high…. Only when circumstances force her does she take a stand and find that integrity and self-confidence make a better life than servility. The end of the book should be labeled "the beginning." (p. 38)

Elizabeth C. Mann, in Chicago Sunday Tribune, Part 2. November 1, 1959.